[old] “FIVE ESSENTIAL PC GAMES”

While neither the first nor the most technically advanced of the Gold Box titles, COK took great strides to smooth out some of the earlier games’ rough edges. As part of the Dragonlance series, COK introduced many gamers to the world of Krynn and kicked off a grand adventure where parties could be imported into Death Knights and all the way through to Dark Queen.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Taking everything that Dungeon Master did right, improving the graphics, interface, adding true D&D mechanics, EOB’s mazes, puzzles and real-time combat pulled in an audience far beyond D&D aficionados. You can also watch a video of the completed but unreleased Atari Lynx version on YouTube. We’d argue that Eye Of The Beholder 2 is the better game, but EOB’s impact is far more important.

DARK SUN: SHATTERED LANDS
Moving to a new engine and the savage, post-apocalyptic dark fantasy world of Athas, Shattered Lands was a great character-driven adventure with underrated turnbasedD&D combat. It was rightly criticized for having an art style that didn’t quite do its harsh setting justice, but gamers who get stuck in regardless, will find a deep and rewarding overlooked gem.

PLANESCAPE: TORMENT
Anything but a dungeon crawler, Planescape: Torment remains a prime example of how computer games can be a perfect storytelling medium. With its unparalleled cast of characters, dark themes and comprising of around 800,000 words of text, this is an expansive and superbly written instance of genuine role-playing. We hope it gets the Enhanced Edition treatment.

BALDUR’S GATE II
The pinnacle of the Infinity Engine titles and regarded by many as the greatest computer RPG ever made, BGII featured countless hours of adventuring, diverse paths for different classes, and an epic story in a fantasy world brimming with content both inside and outside the city of Amn. Now almost a decade and a half old, this is the game today’s RPGs still hope they are compared to.